TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Japanese shares jumped to a
one-week high on Wednesday morning, led by SoftBank Corp
surging on hopes of solid earnings, and on expectations
the Federal Reserve will maintain its ultra-easy money policy
for at least the next few months.

Analysts widely expect the Fed's policy statement due at
1800 GMT will not challenge the growing consensus that any
tapering of its $85 billion of monthly asset purchases will be
delayed to March at the earliest.

The benchmark Nikkei rose 1.2 percent to 14,502.86
in mid-morning trade, the highest since the middle of last week,
after shedding 0.5 percent on Tuesday.

The broader Topix advanced 1 percent to 1,205.58 in
relatively active trade, with volume at 45.4 percent of its full
daily average for the past 90 trading days.

Benchmark heavyweight SoftBank Corp climbed as much as 3.3
percent after the Nikkei newspaper said the company's group
operating profit could shoot up more than 70 percent for the six
months ended Sept. 30, driven by sales of iPhones and other
smartphones. It was the most-traded stock by
turnover on the main board.

Mitsubishi Motors was also among top gainers,
rising 4.1 percent, after the automaker on Tuesday reported a
record operating, recurring and net half-year profits in
April-September.

Taking the shine off the earnings glow on the day,
heavyweight Fanuc Corp lost 3.3 percent.

The fall came after the industrial robots maker posted a
better-than-expected operating profit for the six months ended
on September 30 but forecast a drop in its full-year profit.
It was the sixth-most traded stock by turnover
on Topix.

The earnings season in Japan has failed to impress so far,
but investors will have further trading opportunities from
another batch of earnings later in the day from the likes of
Honda Motor Co Ltd and Nintendo Co Ltd.

The yen's retreat also helped to boost exporters' shares,
which tend to underperform on any strength in the Japanese
currency as it hurts their competitiveness overseas.

"There's been to date a sense that U.S. markets are offering
better returns than Japan and there may have been asset
reallocation to U.S. from Japan," said Stefan Worrall, director
of equity cash sales at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.

"Ultimately if U.S. continues to show risk-on, Japan can
only follow, once the noise of earnings is over," he added.

The yen stepped back to around 98.25 per dollar,
reversing its recent gains stemming from expectations that the
Fed will delay scaling back its stimulus. The dollar has started
to pull up given the Fed view is fully priced in by markets.

The U.S. S&P 500 index ended at an record high on Tuesday,
having gained 5.4 percent this month. In contrast, the Nikkei
was almost flat in the same period.

But analysts at Nomura said the Nikkei could eventually
catch up as Japanese shares look undervalued.

"The trend for P/E levels in the U.S. and Japan is toward
convergence," said Hiromichi Tamura, chief strategist at Nomura,
noting that the P/E ratio for the TOPIX is approximately 14,
compared to around 15 for the S&P 500.